[island911]

The best part of a motor swap is the fuel economy. (knock detection is a great thing) But the cost of the swap will buy a life-time of fuel. IMO, as nice as Dean's van is, I wouldn't swap engines unless it was a six (SVX or 996...) That is, the 4-cyclinder Subie is an improvement for sure - just not enough improvement to land in the elbow of this engineer's curve.

To Webbs comments on Speed. Seriously? If you want to avoid the "ugly scenery" buy a plane ticket.
Even if you have the power to push the barn beyond 90mph are you really going to? The things are noisy enough at 50-70mph (road and wind noise). I suggest a pair of Bose NC headphones for the Vanagon road warriors out there. And then there is the fuel consumption of pushing a barn along at 90mph. Your average mph really drops when range drops to 150 miles. (or less).

ps, the best fight against elevation starvation is a turbo. (see airplane engine design)